2017 Barcelona attack

The 2017 Barcelona attack occurred on 17 August 2017 when a van was driven into a crowd of Spanish civilians and foreign tourists on the popular La Rambla thoroughfare in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, killing 14 and injuring over 100. The attack occurred hours after a premature bomb explosion killed 2 terrorists in their Alcanar apartment, and nine hours before five terrorists were killed as they attempted to mount a vehicle-ramming and stabbing attack in Cambrils early in the morning of 18 August. The Barcelona attack, the related Alcanar explosion, and the Cambrils attack left 5 civilians and 7 terrorists dead and 130 people injured.

Historical context
For years, Spain had a reputation as one of the safest countries in Europe due to its strong intelligence services and counter-terrorism efforts. Spain had built up its counter-terrorist capabilities in response to the ETA terrorist campaigns of the 20th century, and it was first introduced to Islamist terror with the 2004 Madrid train bombings, which killed 192 civilians. Islamists had historical grievances with Spain, seeking to reverse the Reconquista of the Middle Ages and reconquer al-Andalus and the rest of the Iberian Peninsula as the Moors had done in the 8th century. Spain's main terrorist problems stemmed from its proximity to North Africa, where al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its allies were fighting an insurgency against the local pro-Western governments. With the rise of the Islamic State in 2014 and the start of a campaign of IS terror in Europe, IS cells began to form in Spain.

Planning the attack


A large terrorist cell led by the Salafist imam Abdelbaki Es Satty grew in Ripoll, Catalonia, where Es Satty radicalized several local Moroccan youths at his mosque. In August 2017, they planned to carry out several terrorist attacks across Catalonia in response to Spain's participation in the United States-led intervention against IS in the Middle East, responding to calls by IS to attack civilians (and other "soft targets") in coalition countries. The terrorists managed to rent a white Fiat Talento van and secure TATP, 120 propane and butane canisters, another white van, and an Audi A3. The plan was for Es Satty, Mohamed Houli Chemlal, Youssef Aallaa to blow up the Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona; for Moussa Oukabir, Mohamed Hychami, Omar Hychami, Said Aallaa, and El Houssaine Abouyaaqoub to use Mohamed Aalla's Audi A3 for an attack in Cambrils, and for Younes Abouyaaqoub to use the white Fiat Talento van (rented using Driss Oukabir's passport) to run down pedestrians on La Rambla in Barcelona.

Alcanar explosion
On the night of 16 August 2017, as the Sagrada Familia would-be attackers attempted to prepare an explosive device, gas accumulation caused a large blast that killed Es Satty and Aallaa and wounded Chemlal, who was later taken in by police for questioning. While investigating the explosion, police officers were caught by a second blast, caused by a spark from the backhoe excavator touching the intact gas canisters. The two terrorists were killed in the explosion, while six other people were injured, and neighboring homes were also damaged. Nine people were injured in the second explosion.

La Rambla attack
At 4:56 PM on 17 August 2017, Younes Abouyaaqoub drove the rented Fiat Talento van onto the pavement of Barcelona's La Rambla, zigzagging at high speed and hitting several pedestrians on the crowded tourist haven. The van zig-zagged for 1,800 feet before the numerous impacts caused the airbag to go off and the electrical system to shut down, halting the van at a Joan Miro mosaic. Abouyaaqoub fled on foot, hijacked a white Ford Focus and stabbed its driver to death, and rammed a police barricade in Avinguda Daiagonal, injuring an officer. Abouyaaqoub abandoned the vehicle near the Walden 7 building in Sant Just Desvern, and he managed to escape. The police arrested Driss Oukabir, who claimed that his brother Moussa had stolen his ID, as well as another suspect, the internet cafe owner Salh el-Karib.

Cambrils attack
Early in the morning of 18 August, the Hychami brothers, Moussa Oukabir, Said Aallaa, and El Houssaine Abouyaaqoub drove an Audi A3 compact family car into the town of Cambrils, Tarragona with the goal of launching another attack. They drove into a crowd of pedestrians before the vehicle overturned, upon which they exited the vehicle and stabbed nearby civilians while toting fake suicide vests. They managed to kill an elderly woman and injure a policewoman, and a nearby policeman killed four assailants and mortally wounded another one. A total of 1 person died and 6 were injured in the Cambrils attack.

Aftermath
The IS-linked Amaq News Agency claimed that the attack was carried out by soldiers of the Islamic State, who responded to calls to attack coalition countries. IS supporters took to the internet to celebrate the attack, telling the Spanish that they had not forgotten about their "crimes" in Andalucia and that they would "continue to terrorize {the Spanish} and ruin {their} lives." The attack led to an outpouring of condolences and support for the Spanish government, and a makeshift memorial to the victims was made at the Joan Miro memorial, where even Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and King Felipe VI of Spain laid down wreaths to honor those killed and injured. President Donald Trump initially made a statement saying that he was willing help the Spanish government, but he went on to unleash his animosity towards Muslims in a tweet telling people to study General John J. Pershing's tactics in the Philippines, which he claimed "put an end to Islamic terror for 35 years." The debunked legend claimed that Pershing had taken 50 Muslim prisoners and shot 49 of them with bullets dipped in pig blood (something incredibly offensive to Muslims) before having the last one tell the other rebels what happened. The story was debunked by every historian, and Trump was sharply criticized for his comment.